Ken Hall: Conservatives could shift NY GOP left

Until Monday I assumed, as you probably did, that Andrew Cuomo would run over any Republican foolish enough to challenge him in 2014. Then I read a column by Ken Lovett, the Albany bureau chief of the New York Daily News, hinting that there could be some unexpected collateral damage.

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By Ken Hall

recordonline.com

By Ken Hall

Posted Sep. 12, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Ken Hall

Posted Sep. 12, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

Until Monday I assumed, as you probably did, that Andrew Cuomo would run over any Republican foolish enough to challenge him in 2014. Then I read a column by Ken Lovett, the Albany bureau chief of the New York Daily News, hinting that there could be some unexpected collateral damage.

Lovett, a Times Herald-Record alum with deep political contacts, reported that the head of the state Conservative Party is thinking about bringing back Carl Paladino.

Big deal, you might think. Paladino couldn't make a dent the last time and his reputation is even worse now. All he has managed to do is win a seat on the Buffalo school board and spout opinions that ensure everybody knows who you're talking about when you mention "Crazy Carl."

Michael Long, head of the state Conservatives, doesn't necessarily want Paladino on the Republican line. If Paladino runs as a Conservative while Republicans back another in their long line of nondescript candidates, the second most popular party in New York might no longer be the GOP.

What's more, if enough Republicans stay loyal in 2014 and enough Democrats stay home because they don't take the challenge seriously, Paladino could squeak out a victory. That would border on political fiction except for one thing. It has happened before in New York.

In 1970, for the first and only time, New York elected a member of the Conservative Party to the United States Senate. He was James L. Buckley, older brother of the more famous William F., and like Paladino had unsuccessfully challenged a conventional candidate before and lost badly.

The incumbent this time, however, was Charles Goddell, a liberal Republican appointed to fill the vacancy left by the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The Democrat was a Hudson Valley congressman, Richard Ottinger, also a liberal and ardent environmentalist. The two attracted all the liberals and moderates from both parties, leaving Buckley with just 39 percent of the vote which proved enough for him to win his one and only term.

No matter who gets the Republican nomination for governor in 2014, it won't be a liberal so a repeat of the same 1970 split is unlikely. What might happen instead, however, is even more important.

New York was once the home base of the liberal Republicans, personified by Nelson Rockefeller, the man who put Goddell in the Senate for his brief tenure. As the national party has drifted right, so has the New York branch, leaving all those former liberal Republicans without a real home.

If the Conservative Party takes over second place behind the Democrats, the small-c conservatives among Republicans will defect, leaving the others with two choices — register as a Democrat or try to return the state GOP to its former and more liberal condition.

There are a lot of "ifs" between here and there, but there is one delectable piece of political irony. Carl Paladino might be just what liberal Republicans need to take back control of their party.